Dublin

Here's a long due post on my short visit to Dublin. Most of the time was spent at work (and I'll not talk about that here). Instead, here's the world outside work!

To say, "Dublin is a beautiful city" is an understatement - Dublin is colorful, green, beautiful and amazing and much, much more :) One the first day, I went for a walk around the city - from Grand Canal to Grafton and Stephen's Green.

From Dublin, Ireland

The beautiful buildings and the colorful doors

From Dublin, Ireland

And, of course, the spire

From Dublin, Ireland

So, I walked miles and miles along the Grand canal and the Liffey river in beautiful Dublin - Too bad I had just 2 weeks to spend there. I hope I'll see you again, Dublin :)

The other side of Dasara

Dasara - also written as Dussehra - is celebrated with much fanfare in a lot of places. One of them is Mysore - and, for the first time, I decided to travel to a really crowded place.

From Mysore

And, was it crowded?! Good heavens - it was probably one of the most crowded events I've ever been to - people going in every direction all the time and climbing on anything that would give them a good view of the procession!

More than the procession, I found the festive atmosphere, the people and all that was going on around pretty interesting. Needless to say, it was a typical crazily festive day! :)

Even as we walked towards the Mysore Palace, the roads were closed for traffic and there were people everywhere. After getting jostled mightily :( by the crowds, we found our spot by a tonga (horse-drawn cart).

From Mysore

Just looking around, you can see the amazing interest in the procession - much more than I'd anticipated. Much wilder than just passing interest :) People were everywhere - on trees, on pillars and posts, on ornamental entrances and barricades. There wasn't a single structure standing without a man standing on it!

From Mysore

There was a thief who got thrashed, people falling off from the barricades (and getting on them again) all the time, moving here and there, kids on shoulders, cameras held above... all in all, it was great fun.